Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Interior Identity: Ambitious (Kitchen Design)

The word "ambitious" brings to mind the type A personality- individuals with focus, drive and a strong desire for the all of the best things in life. This kitchen mock-up will be comprised of products and design that reflect high performance, function and quality in order to create a design worthy of its "Interior Identity".

Next, the countertops. We looked for high performance,function and modern appeal as well as color & texture.

Our material choice? Recycled Glass. Why? Recycled Glass Countertops are durable, sustainable, heat resistant, and available in a myriad of colors and color blends. Price-wise, recycled glass countertops are in the same range as Corian or granite, with the added benefit of being an eco-friendly choice. For this kitchen, we chose IceStone in Gelato, because the color works beautifully with our backsplash tile, and we wanted a light surface to contrast our cabinet choice.

Speaking of cabinets, we found the perfect door style and color at HicksDistributors.com, from HomeCrest Cabinets' Heritage Collection in Java Linen. We love the cream (Linen) piping against the black base color, which makes the detail of the cabinet doors stand out, as well as working well with the other colors in our (virtual) kitchen design.

Moving on, we decided to use a light-toned flooring to keep this room from being too dark. After all, since we're doing this without a final destination in mind, we don't know how much natural light the room will have, and too much black can overwhelm a space without sufficient light in it. We like the earthiness of the palette in this room, and decided to go with a floor that would have the same feel. Wood flooring is always a great choice, but we decided to have a little fun, and chose a wood grained rectified porcelain tile flooring in a 6 X 24" size, with an offset joint - Torino Natural Driftwood, available at BuildDirect.com. It has a great wood grain, and beautiful natural color, but offers the higher performance, easy clean-up and low porosity benefits of porcelain tile.

Now, there's only one major surface left in this project - the walls - and dependent on the architectural design of the kitchen, precious little area may be left uncovered by cabinetry and windows. However, no design is complete without discussing the wall color. We found two choices that would work beautifully in this layout, and we're including them both here so that you can let us know which you prefer. Both Choices are from the Valspar Ultra Premium Line.

The first, for those of you who prefer to remain in the neutral palette for wall color, is December Starlight:

The second is for those of you who love to "color on the walls". Stillness is the perfect shade to add a little more color to this room, without being overwhelming:

That's all for this post. We look forward to hearing what you think about this room's color & product choices, and to the next virtual design, coming soon.